Gent Mason - Eden

Though he's been creating from the Big Smoke Gent Mason has found solace in the West; beyond the seas of the Atlantic and up on the shores of North America. Soon after his baptism of success, Grant signed to acclaimed label Aesop and has since been working on his brand new EP Eden with acclaimed producer, Jimmy Douglass (Jay Z, Justin Timberlake).

Throughout Eden, Mason manages to morph the chaotic nature of the capital into something lapsed and skeletal. These raw materials are fundamentally and aesthetically urban, but that isn't necessarily remarkable. Yes, motoric bass centres the songs - 'Eden', 'Couldn't Last Until Summer' - but the plethora of luminosity provided by washes of vocals and figures of synthesiser provides a lackadaisical warmth and serenity that you'll seldom find in the city. It's a success.

Gent Mason made his ambitions clear when choosing Jimmy Douglass as his mentor for this release; he wanted to develop what were anonymous, atmospheric and saccharine ideas into something more soulful and traditionally 'R&B'. "In my head you'll always be alive" - he manages to achieve this for the most part with 'Head'. However, there's an ingrained ambiguity in the release which, whilst it is transfixing and ambient, may distract you from acknowledging its emotionally frank moments.

You're led through the measured movements of 'Couldn't Last Until Summer', as Eden avoids a descent into sentimentality. The minimal guise in which the release begins is reflected at its end; this EP is inexorably regenerative and cyclical.

Eden's seductive, glacial nuances and subconscious neglect for structure recognise the choices made by many artists at the moment; The Weeknd, Ango. However, the anglo-currents of escapism and denial that lie below the smooth surface of the EP are intriguing. Maybe on the next release, Mason will explore the narrative a little more; something that he obviously tried to do on Eden, but the arcs of development met in the middle and created a circle.